Bluesmen's World(Music)

This CD supplements a book containing a complete collection of Hungarian Christmas folk songs. The songs are performed by Éva Korpás (vocalist of the Tükrös Ensemble) – accompanied here by the renowned cymbalom artist, Kálmán Balogh.

01. Kirje-Kirje...
02. Mennyből az Angyal
03. Jertek, menjünk
04. Bethlehem kis városában
05. Pásztortársim...
06. Ó, gyönyörűséges Szent Éjszaka...
07. Ó, szerencsés éjszaka
08. Mostan kinyilt
09. Mezei hívek...
10. Repüljetek, Angyalok...
11. Nagykarácsony éjszakáján...
12. Dicsőség Mennyben
13. Az Ég és a Föld...
14. Ó, szép fényes hajnalcsillag
15. Pásztorok, Pásztorok
16. Ma született...
17. Kegyes szívű
18. Pásztorok, kik nyáj...

Link

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Nears the Christmas...
Some of the Hungarian christmasy music, from Hungary with Love.:)

Kálmán Balogh is joined by musician friends to perform Hungarian and Gypsy folk music with a Christmas theme.

01. Ez öröm napja - This the day of a joy
02. Jó hírt pajtás mond nekünk - A fellow says good news to us
03. Betlehem, Betlehem
04. Ez Karácsony éjszakáján - This on the night of Christmas
05. Kis Karácsony - Little Christmas
06. Vusti, vusti (Ébredj, ébredj) - Awake, awake
07. Mennyből az Angyal - From heaven the Angel
08. Nagy örömet hírdetek - I advertise a big joy
09. Elindult Mária - Maria started
10. Tejle hullind'o Sunto Del (A Szent Isten lejött az égből) - God came down from the sky
11. Altató - Sleeping
12. Vígan zengjetek cimbalmok - Resound cheerfully zymbalons

Kálmán Balogh - cimbalom, voice, drum
Ági Szalóki, Bernadett Kiss, Enikő Szabó - voice
Csaba Ökrös - violin
Mihály Dresch - saxophone, flute
Lato Frankie - violin, viloa
Dániel Gryllus - furulya, voice
Károly Berki - guitar
Csaba Novák - bass
Zsolt Nagy - viola

Link

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Ökrös, undoubtedly one of the leading folk music ensembles today, play mainly Transylvanian folk music. Led by the brilliant violinist Csaba Ökrös, they are one of the best interpreters of this type of folk music and on this new release are joined by other musicians of equal excellence: Kálmán Balogh on Cimbalom, Aladár Csiszár on violin, and Ágnes Herczku on vocals.

The theme of this recording is one of the most famous Hungarian folksongs. The song "I Left My Sweet Homeland" became the most important symbol and "song of belonging" to Hungarians living in Hungary. Also to the millions of emigrants who were forced to leave their homeland; and to other millions who, due to the turbulent border changes of the twentiest century, found themselves in their own homes as "citizens" of an alien land.

"The Ökrös Ensemble, led by the brilliant violinist Csaba Ökrös, are probably the finest interpreters of Transylvanian village music in the world. On I Left My Sweet Homeland, the five regular members of the ensemble are joined by Aladár Csiszár, a Gypsy violinist who is one of the last great players of traditional village music; Ágnes Herczku, a young singer who is one of the leading figures in the Hungarian folk music revival; and Kálmán Balogh, one the most accomplished cymbalom players in Europe. On tracks such as "Rábaközi Karéj, dus, Csárdás és Friss," a collection of dance tunes that features the ringing tones of Balogh's cymbalom, or the "Máramarosi Román és cigány Dallamok," a medley of Gypsy tunes, the band navigates the intricate rhythms and complex melodies with aplomb. But the finest moments on this collection come when Herczku steps up to the microphone. Whether she is singing a lively melody like "Csingerálás (The Gypsy Jumping Dance)" or the moving a cappella lament "I Left My Sweet Homeland," she infuses the music with a passion that is rarely equaled."

1. Gyimesi keserves
2. Csabai (Mezőség) keserves, szökős, ritka és sűrű magyar
3. Magyarszováti, széki csárdás
4. Rábaközi karéj, Dús, csárdás és friss
5. Csiszár Aladár nótái (Asztali és forduló)
6. Máramarosi román és cigány dallamok
7. Kalotaszegi mulató nóták, invirtita és cel iute (forgatós és sebes), szapora és keserves
8. Csigány csingerálások
9. Elindultam szép hazámból...

Csaba Ökrös - violin
Miklós Molnár - violin
László Mester - violin, violas, drum
László Kelemen - 3 stringed viola
Róbert Doór - double bass, guitar

Guests:
Ágnes Herczku - voice
Aladár Csiszár - violin
Kálmán Balogh - cimbalom

Link

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"This CD is a further milestone in the band's passion for experimentation. The music of Gipsy Cimbalom Band is a 'great meeting' of different musical genres. The ensemble search for those association points, through which it is possible to interpret what might seem from many other points of view diverse music. Due to the high level of their technical ability with their instruments their imaginative ideas are effortlessly realised on these selections. The compositions are not mere reconstructions of pieces from each source area since the music, like Gypsies, crosses boundaries and the band manages to find unexpected combinations and juxtapositions. These traditional tunes merge seamlessly in the hands of the accomplished musicians as they swerve from style to style, constantly improvising around the main theme. This music is no longer ‘traditional’ but universal. Frequently on one piece the music of just one nation is played, as on, combining standard Romanian folk dances 'doina' and 'sirba'. Likewise a characteristic Transylvanian Gypsy dance, and the, which originates from Moldavia.

This band is guaranteed to put a spring in the step, bring a smile to the face and refresh the appetite of even the most jaded musical palette. After extensive touring through Europe and North America in recent years, in 2003 they step forward once more onto the world stage with a new programme and accompanying CD. Humour and irony, often self-referential, are evidently theirs, without which their music surely could not be genuine. Besides, virtuosity, a firm grounding in classical music studies, love of jazz and knowledge of and respect for different peoples' music are common denominators for the musicians of Gipsy Cimbalom Band. These elements are combined to provide a special musical experience for the listener."

"Kálmán Balogh plays the cimbalom, an activity resembling someone spanking a small piano's innards with a pair of elongated shoe horns. If that sounds unwieldy, it's not. The Liszt Academy graduate employs a light virtuosity which, with his group's three fiddlers, one doubling on trumpet, guitar and bass, produces a highly mobile musical Cook's tour. Moldavian, Macedonian, Romanian, and Bulgarian tunes, a hint of tango, flamenco and klezmer all feature alongside a fiddle excursion into birdsong and finger-shredding brilliance. Another find. I'm running out of gold stars."

01. Vizesés szirba - Waterfall Sirba
02. Reggeli kávé - Morning Coffee
03. Briul Lui Hacsaturjan
04. Keserédes kávé - Bitter-sweet Coffee
05. Cigány körtánc - Gypsy Round Dance
06. Sánta ördög - Lame Devil
07. A titkosügynök szerelme - The Secret Agent's Lover
08. Karaván - Caravan
09. Csillagok, csillagok - Stars, Stars...
10. Csingerálás
11. Lisa, Lisa

Musicians:
Kálmán Balogh - cimbalom
László Major - violin
Sándor Budai - violin, voice
Ferenc Kovács - trumpet, violin
Sándor Kuti - guitar
Csaba Novák - double bass

Guests:
János Láng - violin
Csaba "Brunner" Váradi - viola

Link

pass: bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com

"The rich collection of musical materials from Kálmán Balogh’s latest album is a living illustration of this endless motion of music. In the course of ten tracks Balogh references a dizzying array of styles and approaches, from the flamboyantly virtuosic to the introspective, and from Balkan wedding music to Latin jazz. Here traditional Gypsy fiddling meets soft jazz trumpet while Hungarian, Macedonian, and Romanian tunes join together in a round dance, with Brahms and Liszt and even Bach peering out here and there.

This album also demonstrates the tendency of leading musicians to make their own path. Kálmán Balogh has at least two astonishing gifts. The first is the most obvious, an uncanny control and power performing on his instrument. The subtlety of his touch is legendary, as are the different roles his instrument plays: now accompanist, now a wild soloist, here expressive, there percussive. This breadth is the key to his second gift, that of stretching his core repertoire in manifold directions and in doing so reinventing his instrument. The search for some notion of historic or stylistic authenticity would be here misplaced. The only authenticity one should demand from Balogh is the authenticity of his unerring musical instincts.

Kálmán Balogh’s background and training render him an ideal musical personality to achieve such synthetic goals. He was born in Miskolc in North-Eastern Hungary in 1959 and started to play the cimbalom at the age of 11. His first teacher was his uncle, Elemer Balogh, who is musically remembered in the first part of Track 6. While this rich training in the oral tradition shaped his flair and the excellence of his ear, he supplemented this approach with classical studies, graduating from The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. Hungary is the only country in the world that has offered advanced music degrees in cimbalom study, and this combination of traditional and “classical” training marks Balogh’s free range, and also his remarkable control. He has become recognized as one of the world’s leading cimbalom players, and many is the aspiring young player who proudly identifies themselves as having studied with Kálmán Balogh. He has played with most of the leading traditional music groups in Hungary, and continues his career as a traveling virtuoso.

The instrument he plays traces its modern invention back to the last three decades of the 19th century, but it existed in many other forms for centuries. Today the instrument resembles nothing so much as a thick trapezoidal wooden table with sets of strings on its surface running at seemingly dizzying diagonals, the whole held aloft by trunklike legs. Today’s cimbalom has about 125 metal strings with 3 to 5 strings per note. But this powerful, tightly strung instrument was originaly a much smaller, portable one which the strolling player supported with a strap around their neck. Examples of this can be seen throughout the region, from Moravia to Bulgaria, and other variants of this genus are the hammered dulcimer of the Appalachians. Like pianos, accordions, and guitars, the cimbalom has always been a marvelously versatile creation and an essential part of a band. It can whisper like the wind, or carry the force of a musical machine gun. It plays gentle chords, and outlines the harmony, but can take a solo like no one’s business. It supports forward motion with bold basslines, but its rolled chords, its glorious arpeggios, are perhaps the hallmark of its identity. All of these sounds and styles, and more, can be heard on Kálmán Balogh’s innovative new album."

Kálmán Balogh – cimbalom
Ferenc Kovács – trumpet & violin
Péter Bede – saxophone
Frankie Látó – violin
Mihály György – guitar
Csaba Novák – bass

Part 1.
Part 2.

Original uploader: bobbyrobb. Thanks!

The Udrub Ensemble was formed in 2004 through the natural fusion of six exceptional professional musicians. The secret to the ensemble’s exotic and unique sound is a type of multicultural harmony that is ultimately a projection of each member’s Hungarian identity. Their love of eastern sounds is brought about by the kinship that is prevalent is the feeling world of Hungarian and eastern people, that inevitable define a new and fresh world music creation. Historically, the art world is just realizng its flowering through impressionism. The age of the Internet in our modern contemporary wold enables us to experience both our culture and the broader world around us, to ultimately promote the idea of peaceful coexistence. The Udrub ensemble’s composition’s artistic worth lies in the harmony of its authentic traditions and personal musical expressions, in which the strength of folk music, the refinement of classical music and the freedom of jazz unite.

1. Al Baab "Sarqi"
2. Parfum de Gitane
3. Ash Devlesa
4. Xelef/ Nawroz (kurd. trad)
5. Halleluya
6. A bűn
7. Balakan express

Udrub:
János Gerzson – oud, saz
Tibi Golan – ney, flute, kaval
Dávid Troják – bass guitar
Géza Orczy – daf, derbuka, tapan

Kálmán Balogh – cimbalom
Frankie Látó - violin


Link

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Balogh Kálmán is one the foremost Hungarian players of the cimbalom, a type of hammer dulcimer played with mallets like a vibraphone. Gypsy jazz continues a fabled European musical tradition harking back to the collaboration of masters such as gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli, connecting the ancient folk music traditions to Central and Eastern Europe with the chord progressions and swing of jazz. Balogh's cimbalom becomes a new and compelling voice centering a band that also includes acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, trumpet and violins.

01. Gypsy Colours
02. Calusul Dance
03. Transylvania Suite
04. Hora (F# minor)
05. Klezmer Tunes
06. Hora de la Bim-Bim
07. Suite for Trumpet
08. A Csitári Hegyek Alatt
09. Macedon Tunes
10. The Lark
11. Bolgar Gypsy Horo

Link

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"The music is in their blood! As in many parts of the world Roma musicians are peerless in musical entertainment in Hungary as well. The cornerstones of the music of Kálmán Balogh and his fellow performers in the Gipsy Cimbalom Band are their distinguished instrumental knowledge and virtuosity inherited through famous musical dynasties on one hand, together with their familiarity with different musical genres and styles.

Kálmán Balogh has been honing his undoubted musical skills for twenty years or so now, playing with the best of Hungary's folk musicians with excursions into classical, jazz and rock, both at home and abroad. The Gipsy Cimbalom band provides him with the opportunity to fulfill a more personal musical vision and although his dazzling mallet work is a highlight of their performance, the band do much more than provide a foundation for the cimbalom - they are all dynamic and versatile musicians with equally eclectic musical taste and it's hard to know from which direction the next thrilling contribution will come. In this band Kálmán and his fellow musicians present the instrumental music performed by Gypsies in the Carpathian Basin and the Balkans - Hungarian, Rumanian, Bulgarian and Macedonian..."

01. Hora jazz
02. Aven shavale... (Gyertek fiúk / Let's Go Boys...)
03. Bolgáros
04. Ederlezi
05. Mahala
06. Moldáviai cimbalmos
07. Romnya lel muro shavo... (Megházasodik a fiam... / My Son's Getting Married...)
08. Erev shel shoshanin... (Rózsák estéje... / Night Of The Roses)
9. Zavaros a Nyárád... / The Nyárád Is Troubled...
10. Saxy hora & sirba
11. Cimbalom improvizáció


Kálmán Balogh – cimbalom (1-11)
Ferenc Kovács – violin, trumpet (1), (2-7, 9-10)
Péter Bede – tenor sax (1-10)
Frankie Látó – violin (1-5, 7-10)
Mihály György – guitar (1-10)
Csaba Novák – double bass (1-10)

Featuring:
Ági Szalóki – voice (7)
Flóra Polnauer – voice (8)
Kinga Krámli – voice (9)
Gusztáv Balogh – voice, oral bass (2, 4, 7)
Gábor Pusztai – percussion (1-5, 7-10)

Link